The Dead Letter Drop BBS
+968 699407 --- 18:00-03:00 GMT
27th December 1995
The Dead Letter Drop BBS (aka DLD) is situated in Muscat, Oman.
DLD is the support BBS for free software written or maintained by Jonathan Hudson. The BBS is not particularly user
friendly, but it serves it purpose as the home for some interesting SMS/QDOS software.
The Dead Letter Drop supports speeds to v.32bis (14400 bps) and
ZyXEL 16800 & 19200 bps. The modem supports v.42 compression and uses
a 38400 bps DTE speed.
For best results calling DLD, you should use the following
terminal settings.
- ZMODEM protocol
- RX EOL = <CR/LF>
- TX EOL = <CR>
- Delete = BS (8)
- 8-N-1
The BBS runs within a voice mail system. It should
automagically recognise fax and data calls. Should the system fail to
recognise data or fax, these modes can be forced by pressing the
following telephone keypad while the OGM is playing (or after the
voice "tone").
0 to force data connect.
- 5 to force fax connect.
This is going to be a bit unusual: it's a command line BBS.
There are two areas you might like to know about, the QDOS file area
which is prefixed QDOS: and a private file area. To see the contents
of your private area, just type ls -l, if there is a private
file for you. the name will usually be descriptive.
To see the contents of the QDOS: area, try ls -l QDOS: or
dlt for a menu driven download system. You can download files
by choosing a number (or numbers) from the dlt menu, or using
the sz command.
If you wanted the file QDOS:qtpi157.zip, just type sz
QDOS:qtpi157.zip.
If you had a private file (say secret.zip), just type sz
private.zip.
To upload a file, just start the ZMODEM on your machine, the BBS will
cope.
To send mail to me, use the command mail sysop or mail root.
Terminate the edit with ^Z (control-Z).
If the system says you have mail, use the mail command, then type
the message number at the prompt (usually 1). q quits mail.
To log off, use bye.
Please note: The system is not hosted on QDOS, is uses '.'
(dot) as a file name separator.
This section lists a few of the 57 (or more) files that are
currently available in the QDOS file area of DLD.
- GIF&TIFF001.zip (58093 bytes) Tools to convert QDOS/SMS PIC and
screen files to GIF & TIFF formats.
- GetStuffed.zip (2726 bytes) *BASIC utility to return contents of
hot key stuffer buffer.
- CSM118.zip (30921 byes) Release 1.18 of Client Server Manager
Simple scripting and job communications for SMS/QDOS. v1.18 just adds
a fix to the 'C' API.
- c68 cross compilers. xtc68 is available for Linux, NT &
W'95, MSDOS and OS/2. This is still at c68 v4.14 levels; a
revision to v4.20x will be available in Jan'96.
- PGP26SMS.zip (687761 bytes) PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Public Key
Encryption software (Philip Zimmermann et al) for SMS/QDOS.
- Ghostscript (large) Various files (binaries, sources, utilities,
manuals) for the SMS/QDOS version (GNU/Aladdin Enterprises et al).
- qltools (various) Program to read and write SMS/QDOS format disks
on Unix (Linux), Intel O/S (Windows *, DOS, OS/2). Source provided,
(should compile on most Unices and even VMS).
- InfoZIP (and unzip!) for SMS/QDOS.
- QTPI (??). Telecommunications software. What this
space for latest update.
- spv005.zip (37570 bytes) Cute Pic viewers (with source), requires
ptr_gen for 'vspv' (and wman and menu_rext for 'qspv').
- QFAX (???). Quintessentially essential fax software. qfv fixes
RSN.
- TrapIt.zip (4025 bytes) Dubious little trap/bug handler for QLs.
- Voice Mail. Two alpha status files of the
qvm voice mail software for SMS/QDOS are available. Inquire about working
versions for Amiga and Linux.
- QTPI-HTML.zip (47818 bytes) Some HTML about QTPI
(& jh) !!!
- DLD-HTML.zip (see recursion) Some HTML about DLD.
SMS and QDOS are operating systems for 680xx based computers,
originally (popularised ?) by the Sinclair QL. Modern,
debugged, compatible operating systems, supporting more recent, reliable
hardware include SMS/2, SMSQ/E and Minerva.
Other BBS supporting SMS/QDOS users include (e&oe):
- Forth Dimension BBS (+44 1202 770515)
- TFS/QBBS (+44 1344 890987)
- Nene Valley (+44 1933-460538)
- QUASAR (+49 511 407827)
- ERGON BBS (+39 522 300509)
- QITALY (+39 342 590451)
- QBOX USA (+1 810 254 9878)
- QLCF (+33 98430320)
The author explores Nizwa Fort
jh_in_colour.gif: *Picture UNAVAILABLE*
Jonathan R Hudson currently works for the Government of Oman in
Muscat, when he's not sailing or playing with a real computer.
Just once, he got caught here having a sunny day off exploring the historic
Nizwa Fort in the Oman Interior. Nice mountains, not much desert !
This document is an experiment in HTML and not necessarily
informative or accurate !
Jonathan R Hudson
PO Box 2272
Ruwi 112
Sultanate of Oman
+968 699407 (voice/fax, 24 hours)
+968 699407 The Dead Letter Drop BBS(18:00-03:00 GMT)